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Friday, September 2, 2011

US Congress Returns as President Calls for Action on Jobs: What Action

I wrote a blog last year just after the Mid Term Elections, predicting that the 112th Divided Congress would be just that divided. And you can go check out my Blog Site if you don't believe me. You have a Republican House thats now dominated by the Tea Party, that wants to get the Federal Government's budget back to the 2008 levels if not lower. Perhaps go back to the levels pre Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, they are clearly not a Democratic Socialist Faction to say the least. Actually they want to take power out of the Federal Government and give it back to the States and people even. Except for issues like on Gay Rights to use as an example and perhaps a few other Social Issues, so there's a bit of a contradiction there in the Tea Party. And this Political Faction is now running the House of Representatives and have Speaker Boehner's and Leader Cantor's ear. To the point that they won't do anything without their consent. And you have a Democratic Senate who are really just interested in preserving the New Deal/Great Society that was built up by FDR and LBJ and preserve the Federal Government at what it is and not interested in making huge reforms there in any way. As far as how the Federal Government is run. With a small minority of democrats in the House and Senate, people who I would call Democratic Socialists the Progressive Caucus. Who not only want to preserve the American Welfare State but to expand it dramatically to the point where we look more like Britain or Sweden. They don't have the power to move the agenda in either the House or the Senate but to cause a big uproar. And hurt the Democratic Leadership politically when they do something they don't like. The Debt Deal being an example of this, so what we now have in Congress is two roaring Political Ideology's that to a certain extent can agree on what the problems are. But are so different ideologically that of course they can't agree on what the solutions are but can't even compromise. Especially the republicans when they don't get exactly what they want.

This is what a Divided Country, a Divided Congress when you have two roaring Political Factions and parties at each other looks like. Especially in a Two Party System and its gotten to the point that forget about agreeing or compromising on what to do on big issues. But they can't even handle the mundane issues like agreeing on when the President should address Congress. This is what Divided Government looks like and you might say this is a case for United Government. When one party runs both the Congress and the White House, that might be the case. Give one party the White House and Congress and give the President four years to put their agenda through and then if you don't like them. Vote them out and replace them with the Opposition Party both in the White House and Congress. Maybe so but we tried that with the Bush Administration for four years from 2003-07 and that didn't work out very well. Parties don't tend to hold themselves accountable and go too far. "Absolute Power corrupts absolutely is a very fair statement, what I'm saying is that before people blame Congress and the President for everything. They should first look at themselves to see if they are doing everything they can and also look at who they vote for. And hold themselves accountable for their own actions as well.

This is what a Divided Congress looks like especially when there's just two years before the next General Election. When both parties will have the opportunity to increase their Power Base. Its not our Political System thats the problem right now, even though I would scrap the Two Party System but thats a different blog. Its the people running the Political System thats the problem right now.